Brooke Renee

I have officially lost track of who knows and doesn't know that our little girl has been born. Things were a blur, and here is the story of her birth, as I can best recall.

Sunday August 1st, I woke up thinking I was in labor. They told me six contractions in an hour and go to hospital. Well I had five and then they stopped. So I didn't wake Jason and went about my day. I kept not feeling great, feeling a lot of pain from time to time. We decided we should stay home from church. I was trying to get over a cold I picked up last week, and Dr. M. had said I could come in as early as the second to be induced into labor.

Good thing we stayed home, because during church the hospital called and told me arrive at 9pm that night. Ummm are you sure? Opps, I guess I should pack. Who'd going to watch Eric? Darn most of my volunteers were still at church. I still need to pack. Too much to do. And OUCH my stomach is hurting.

I got a hold of Katie and she was all set to take Eric. The plan was for her to keep him the night. T.J. wanted to be there for his sister's birth so he'd be coming with us. Then off to pack for Eric, for myself and just wrap my head around that I was having the baby soon.

After prayers, a blessing, and dropping Eric off we headed to the hospital. Where we waited in a room for a couple of hours. Just sat there. Dang I would have preferred to stay home. Good thing I had my laptop and FB chat.

The nurse came in to start an IV line and put the monitors on the baby bump. Little Princess kept moving so it was hard to keep the monitors in place. Then she surprised me with a little news. I was already in labor. Those tight pains were labor pains. I guess it is good I am at the hospital now.

I wasn't dilated enough so I was started on a gel to help. It didn't really. So wait we did. At midnight Jason and T.J. made a McDonald's run since we knew it would be a while before food would be available to me again.

Then we did our best to nap and rest.


At 4:30 am it was time for the epidural. the pains were bad enough I wanted to kick something. Jason suggested T.J. but the kid was smart enough to not get near me. ;)

At 7:30 am I still was only dilated to a 3, which I was when I came in. Dr. M showed up to break my water and let me know he was headed to a funeral and was hoping I'd deliver after lunch.

At 8am they let T.J. eat my breakfast. After, he left for one of his two hundred walks around the hospital.

At 9:30 I had only progressed to a 4. Kill me.

At 10:30 I was at six, go baby go!

All of a sudden I was feeling hard pains against my tailbone. I sent Jason to get the nurse because I thought I had done something stinky. Turns out I hadn't but she discovered.....

At 11:30 I was at a ten. The pains I was feeling were her head against my pelvic bone. Oh and yea, Dr. M can't be there to deliver her, he's still at the funeral. So Dr. F, his partner will come as soon as I am crowning.

At 11:45 it was discussed with T.J. that he must remain in this chair if he wants to stay in the room. He wasn't too happy staying at my head.
Then my nurse Cathie had me start pushing. Jason held one leg while she held the other. T.J complained he couldn't see anything. Tough nuggies kid, some things I don't want you to see.

Dr. F. was paged to come. I was told it would take 8 minutes for him to arrive.

GET THIS THING OUT OF ME, IT HURTS! A turn up of meds on the epi, did nothing to help.

Dr. F. came shook hands and said hello. Then it was time to push. PAIN PAIN PAIN. I felt everything. Stupid epidural.

I remember at one point suggesting that it was Jason's turn to push the baby out. Once her head was out, I was told to push to get the shoulders out. I advised them I couldn't push anymore. I was tired, I was hungry, and having this baby no longer seemed like a good idea.

T.J. said funny thing was, I was still pushing.

At 12pm on the dot on August 2nd 2010 Brooke Renee was born. 7lbs. 3oz. 19 1/2 inches long I just remembered crying a lot. T.J. kept wanting to run over to his sister and see her.

As she came out I heard Dr. F say, "I have never seen that before". The nurses then agreed. This isn't the most comforting statement.

Turned out Brooke was wearing her umbilical cord like a feather boa. Behind the neck and under each arm. I guess we had to do something to make this one interesting.

I'd like to point out that Dr. M. showed up 8 minutes after she was born, to this day I wonder had I known he was eight minutes away, could I have waited for him?

Once she was done getting all her tests they brought her over to me. I started to cry again.
I was expecting her to look more like Eric than she did. She has the blue gray newborn eyes and not brown like he was. Her checks look more like my friend's little girl, and she has a dimple chin. I think she's more a mix of Jason and I with John Travolta's chin.



They forgot to turn off the "birthin" lights

T.J. was leaping out of skin to hold her.

This picture looks familiar

T.J. felt left out of the wrist band thing for the baby. Sorry kid.

Then she went right to the breast and stayed there for an hour. She came out ready to latch.

At about 2pm Jason and T.J. headed out to get lunch, clean up, and pick up Eric when he wakes from his nap at my friend Paige's house.

At 6pm Jason came back with the boys and some flowers and a balloon. It was nice to see Eric again. I missed him.
Eric got to meet his sister for the first time.

Eric's reaction to his sister has been surprising. He gets totally jealous when I hold other kids and figured he'd be that way with Brooke, but not at all. He seems to be fascinated with her.